A set of photographs showing former President Bill Clinton on vacation is frequently shared online by conspiracy-minded websites and social media users, along with the claim that the pictures show him with his arms around a convicted sex offender named George Nader. This rumor was first promulgated by proponents of the "Qanon" conspiracy theory in March 2018 after it was revealed that Nader, a key witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, had previously been convicted on charges related to child pornography:
The images were subsequently picked up by websites such as True Pundit, The Event Chronicle,, and News Punch and posted in articles that alluded to some sort of nefarious activity involving Clinton, pedophilia, and the Mueller investigation.
Here's how True Pundit presented these images in March 2018:
BUSTED: Mueller’s New Star Witness Against Trump Caught Partying at Exclusive Island Resort with Bill Clinton ...
George Nader testified last week to the Mueller grand jury.
Mr. Nader is an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates. According to The Times, Mr. Mueller is investigating whether Emirati money found its way to the Trump campaign, which would be illegal.
That sounds very official and all but perhaps Mueller might ask his new star witness in the Trump investigation what he was doing partying on an exclusive island resort with Bill Clinton.
Especially when The Clinton’s have been caught helping fund the bogus Trump dossier which helped launch Mueller’s probe.
Optics here. Very bad.
Interest was renewed in these images in June 2019, after Nader was brought up on another set of charges related to child pornography. A tweet from "Praying Medic," a Twitter user described as a "Qanon Researcher" in the account's bio, was shared more than 2000 times:
The above-displayed images are real, and they truly show Clinton posing with a man named George Nader. However, this is not the same George Nader who has a record of child-pornography charges and who was a key witness in Mueller's investigation. The man seen in this picture is actually an art entrepreneur who happens to share a name with the convicted sex offender mentioned in the Mueller Report.
These images were taken in January 2017 during Clinton's vacation to Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic. A number of Spanish-language news outlets received the images and published them in articles about the former president's trip. Diaspora Dominicana, for example, reported at the time as follows:
LA ROMANA, Dominican Republic.- The former president of the United States, Bill Clinton, is on vacation in the Dominican Republic.
He is spending his vacations in Casa de Campo, La Romana, in the residence of his friend and fellow student Ronald Gonzalez Bunster, a renowned entrepreneur with great interests in the electrical and tourism sectors of the Dominican Republic.
Many of the pictured individuals were identified by these news outlets, including the person to Clinton's left. While these outlets identified this person as "George Nader," they also described him as an "artistic entrepreneur," a description that does not fit the Nader involved in Mueller's probe, who is a businessman and lobbyist:
(Clinton) is spending his vacations in Casa de Campo, La Romana, in the residence of his friend and fellow student Ronald Gonzalez Bunster, a renowned entrepreneur with great interests in the electrical and tourism sectors of the Dominican Republic ...
In the photos appears the artistic entrepreneur George Nader Ricardo Cheaz, Dominican businessman, of oriental descent.
The note received by Accent, along with the photographs is very eloquent. It says the following: "In Palmilla. Former President Clinton is on vacation. Playing golf and enjoying Palmilla with his Dominican friends."
A family of artistic entrepreneurs with the surname Nader are active in the Dominican Republic. Georges S. Nader opened his first gallery in Port-au-Prince Haiti in 1966, and since then his family has expanded the business with galleries in Miami and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
George Nader the artistic entrepreneur shared one of these photographs to his Instagram page in January 2017:
We reached out to Nader's company, Nader Enterprises, to confirm it was indeed him in the photograph. The company told us via email that "It's George Nader but not the pedophile!"
The websites sharing these images as if they showed Clinton with a sex offender are basing that claim solely on the fact that the pictured man shares a name with an individual involved in Mueller's investigation. Two people having the same name is quite common, however, and does not make them the same person.
